


We Are Not Philosophers

by Pippin



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe, Amputee Bucky Barnes, M/M, Post-Serum Steve Rogers, Queen's Thief, Thief Bucky, king steve, queen natasha
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-18
Updated: 2015-12-18
Packaged: 2018-05-07 11:58:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,544
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5455703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pippin/pseuds/Pippin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“We are not philosophers, we are sovereigns. The rules that govern our behavior are not the rules for other men, and our honor, I think, is a different thing entirely, difficult for anyone but the historians and the gods to judge.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	We Are Not Philosophers

_“We are not philosophers, we are sovereigns. The rules that govern our behavior are not the rules for other men, and our honor, I think, is a different thing entirely, difficult for anyone but the historians and the gods to judge.” —Megan Whalen Turner,_ A Conspiracy of Kings

* * *

“My King, we have finally caught the Thief.”

Steve looked up at his head of security, Alexander Pierce.  “Good.  Bring him to me.  Also summon the Kommaduan ambassador, please.”

Pierce vanished, and Steve tipped his head back to rest on the throne in a rare moment of relaxation.  He was famous for being the stone faced king of Skuylder, but it wasn’t always easy.  It would hopefully be easier, however, once he dealt with the Thief. 

The Thief served the neighboring kingdom of Kommadu, and was fiercely loyal to its queen, Natasha.  He had a talent for sneaking and spying without ever being caught, and of late he had been taunting Steve, slipping into the palace in the middle of the night and leaving small objects within the rooms, even within Steve’s own bedchamber.  He was taunting the Skuyldan king, and it was infuriating.

The ambassador from Kommadu entered the room, followed by the one from Alidyr.  Steve frowned imperceptibly.  He hadn’t summoned the latter, but couldn’t send him away.  One had to be careful around ambassadors.  Do anything to offend them and you would find that you had someone managed to commit an act of war.  And he definitely didn’t trust the Alidyri ambassador.  He was a small, weasely man who constantly made snide comments about how Steve ran his kingdom and hinting that his emperor would do better.

If it wasn’t that he knew that it was a terrible idea, Steve might consider going to war with Alidyr just to be rid of Zola.

Pepper, the Kommaduan ambassador, on the other hand, was much more pleasant, although she fixed Steve with one of her patented “you better know that the fuck you’re doing” looks as she passed him.  He just raised his chin and ignored the look.  He was the one on the throne, after all, and she was going to have to essentially beg him for any sort of mercy. 

Not that it was going to make a difference.  The Thief of Kommadu was a major political player in both Kommadu and Skuylder, as well as in Caro, the country on the other side of Kommadu, and taking him out of the equation would make things a whole lot easier. 

Pierce and his second in command, Brock Rumlow, dragged the Thief in, throwing him at the ground in front of Steve’s throne.

The Thief tossed his long brown hair out of his face with a flick of his head and stared defiantly at Steve, as if daring him to do his worse.

“Take care not to offend the gods,” Pepper warned, reminding Steve that Kommadu was a strangely religious country, as well as the fact that, while it was a bad idea for a king to insult an ambassador, an ambassador could insult a king.  They had diplomatic immunity that protected them from being hurt for any slights.

“Take him out to the courtyard and hang him,” Steve ordered, voice firm, then turned to face Pepper.  “That shouldn’t offend your gods, I believe.  It will only send him to meet them.”

Pepper looked down.  “I do not believe that my queen would be able to find fault in that, so long as it is a clean execution.”

Steve looked away from her to nod at Pierce.  “Do it.”

“Your Majesty,” Zola cut in, and Steve groaned internally. 

“Yes?”

“If I could suggest that you reconsider?”

Steve called for Pierce and Rumlow to stop, then arched an eyebrow, looking at Zola coolly.  “Do you have a better suggestion?”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“Take the Thief back to his cell.  I will speak to Zola alone.”

The various people cleared the room, and Steve fixed Zola with an icy glare.  “You said that you had a better suggestion.  Go on.”

“Well…”

* * *

He wasn’t sure how he was supposed to feel about his stay of execution.  On one hand, Bucky was rather fond of breathing and being alive.  On the other, it only gave him more time to worry.  He didn’t trust the Alidyri in any way, shape, or form, and while Pepper had warned the Skuyldan king not to offend the gods, there was no guarantee that that would buy him any leniency.  He knew that the other nations were not religious as Kommadu was, meaning that Steve would feel no pressure to actually adhere to that warning, and, even if he did, there was a hell of a lot he could do that wouldn’t actually offend the gods.  Bucky would know.

Bucky also knew that there really wasn’t anything that Pepper could do for him, as much as he would like her to be able to help.  He had been rightfully caught on the grounds of the Skuyldan palace, a fact which gave Steve completely autonomy to do whatever the hell he wanted.

He was honestly terrified of Steve, as was basically everyone.  He was the most attractive person Bucky had ever seen—and he was seen gods; gods that Steve blew out of the water—but he was also the stone faced and stone hearted king of Skuylder, a man with no compassion or emotion.

Bucky really didn’t think much of his chances for survival, which really was a pity, but there was nothing he could do about it.

* * *

Natasha was in the middle of holding her weekly open court session when a courier in Skuyldan uniform ran in with a message.  “I was told that this is urgent,” he told her breathlessly, watching her nervously.

Ignoring him for the moment, she unfolded the note.  It was written in Pepper’s elegant cursive:  _Bucky’s been captured in Skuylder.  Likely going to be executed.  Nothing I can do—I’m so sorry._

Natasha took a deep breath, schooling her features calm, then handed the note to Clint, her minister of war and one of her closest friends. 

“Feed him, give him a place to rest, and then send him back to Skuylder in the morning,” she ordered one of her attendants. 

The courier visibly relaxed and Natasha frowned.  She wasn’t sure what happened to the bearers of bad news in the Skuyldan court, but she would never do anything bad to the man.  It wasn’t like it was his fault that Bucky had been captured.

Once the man was gone, Natasha ended the court session early.  She couldn’t focus, and needed to meet with her ministers, anyways.

“Bucky’s been captured,” she said bluntly as she stood at the head of the table in the board room.  “He’s now the prisoner of the Skuyldan king, which means that it is very likely that we will not be seeing our Thief again.  Pepper says that there is nothing she can do to help him, and I’m not surprised.  If our roles were reversed, I would be doing much the same as Steve.”

She looked down, taking a moment to collect her thoughts.  She had to stay rational and not let her emotions overwhelm her.

“All we can really do is wait for his body to be returned.  That being said, I want to confiscate the next—oh, ten Skuyldan caravans as compensation for the loss of Bucky’s service.  He is, of course, worth much more than that, but we cannot take more.  We have to be reasonable.”

* * *

Steve had called Bucky before him again.  The Thief tried not to show how terrified he was.

“I could kill you,” he said coldly, “but that doesn’t mirror the amount of stress and harm you have caused both myself and the king in Caro.  As such, I have devised another punishment for you.”

Bucky’s eyes slid from Steve to the Alidyri ambassador, and he could see on his face that this was all his idea.  Steve would have just had him hanged and be done with it.

Steve stood, nodding to Pierce and Rumlow.  “You know where to take him.”

Bucky’s fight or flight response kicked in, and he tried desperately to escape the grasp of the guards.  It was no use, though, and one of them hit him on the back of the head, hard enough to knock him out.

* * *

When Bucky came to, he was held to a wooden chair by leather straps.  The guards who had been holding him earlier were there, one holding a curved sword in his hand.  Steve was also there, arms folded across his chest as he watched impassively.

“Rumlow.”

The man with the sword approached, and Bucky fought against the straps, feeling as though his heart was about to beat right out of his chest.

His struggling was to no avail, however, as the guard that the king of Skuyldan had called Rumlow raised the sword and brought it down.

Bucky tried not to scream as the sword bit first into the skin of his left wrist, and then into the wooden arm of the chair.

“Send him back to Kommadu,” he vaguely heard Steve command as the world faded and Bucky passed out.

**Author's Note:**

> This is inspired by my favorite book series, Queen's Thief by Megan Whalen Turner, and based off the second book in said series, The Queen of Attolia. The books are excellent and I cannot recommend them highly enough. That being said, with the exception of the first book, The Thief, they're largely political and centered around kings and queens and running kingdoms. 
> 
> As this is based off a book, many of the characters mirror those from said book. Steve is Attolia, Bucky is Eugenides, Natasha is Eddis, Clint Eddis's minister of war, and so on. In the series, the position of Thief in the country of Eddis is an official and political one, and is always capitalized in the books, hence why it is in the fic. While the position has somewhat of a political significance, it is also hereditary and the Thief actually is a real thief--it's not just a title.
> 
> The names of the countries came from putting key words through Google Translate into various languages. That being said, they are not exact translations; I went more off the pronunciations than the spelling. The words I used were Shield (for Steve;s country), Hydra (For the country that Zola is the ambassador from), Stark (for that one country mentioned in passing), and Commando (for the country that Bucky and Natasha are from. Also, it turns out that "Commando," as in Howling Commandos, doesn't have a good translation--it's always either commando or kommando. So I had to butcher it a bit.)
> 
> Kudos and comments are always appreciated, of course.


End file.
